Private Jim Flanagan with Captured Nazi Flag in the Morning D-Day

Image size: 1600 x 1155 pixel. 454 KB
Date: Tuesday, 6 June 1944
Place: Fontenay-le-Marmion, Calvados, Normandy, France
Photographer: Unknown

The famous image of Private James "Jim" Flanagan (14 March 1923 - 8 December 2005) of 2nd Platoon / C Company / 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) / 101st Airborne Division holding a captured Nazi flag was taken at Marmion, Normandy (France), in the morning of D-Day. Flanagan parachuted into Normandy hours before the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division was to land at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. He and his fellow airborne soldiers came down in the middle of the night, charged with removing any German resistance along the vulnerable causeways that led inland from the beach. They would be the prelude to the largest amphibious invasion in history. After landing near Ravenoville, France, the first vehicle that the paratrooper saw later in the morning while mopping up near a captured farm complex was coming from the beach and carrying two men, one an International News Service photographer. It was 9 a.m., about three hours into ‘the longest day’ in history. The soldiers took a brief timeout so that the photographer could record the event. Flanagan, in the center, smiled while clutching the Nazi flag that had been ‘liberated’ from the enemy command post headquarters in the farm complex they now occupied. The German helmet at his feet in the bottom of the picture was still lying where it had fallen from the German who had died while defending the place. When this picture was wired back to the States, it became one of the most widely distributed newspaper photos taken from the events of June 6. The flag was kept by Flanagan for years, before donated to the General Donald Pratt 101st Airborne Museum in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on 10 June 1986, where it is today. From left to right: Private First Class Arthur A. Justice (B/502), unknown, Private Justo Correa (A/506), Private First Class Arthur J. Barker (B/502), Private Joe E. Ridgeway (B/502), Private James "Jim" Flanagan (C/502), Private Norwood B Newinger (B/502), Jerry Giarritano (with machete), Corporal Earl H. Butz (HQ/502), and Sergeant Smith C. Fuller (B/502).

Source :
"101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles in World War II" by Mark Bando
https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-interview-with-101st-airborne-trooper-james-flanagan-about-d-day.htm
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/triggertimeforum/marmion-farm-german-flag-where-is-it-t7394.html